Word: knights
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Administrative Law Judge Morton Needelman was not impressed. He noted that Knight-Ridder, one of the country's richest and most distinguished newspaper chains, had invested tens of millions of dollars in the Free Press and had never before folded any of its papers. Thus, Needelman concluded, "I have assigned little weight to this threat." But last week, less than a month after Needelman issued his report to Attorney General Edwin Meese recommending against the controversial J.O.A., Chapman pursued his threat further. Emerging from a Detroit meeting of the 17-member Knight-Ridder board, he solemnly announced that...
...Knight-Ridder's move ends years of high-stakes poker and initiates a risky game of chicken. By placing the future of the Free Press (and its 2,200 employees) squarely in the lap of the Attorney General, Knight-Ridder is gambling that Meese will have no choice but to save the paper. To up the odds, the company has launched an all-out public relations blitz designed to win over local opponents and to sway Meese. After last week's board meeting, Chapman scheduled private meetings with leaders of the paper's unions and Mayor Coleman Young...
Also troubling is the fact that it is far from certain that either Detroit paper is in immediate danger of failing. While Knight-Ridder executives insist the Free Press (circ. 639,312 daily; 735,000 Sunday) cannot survive continued competition from the News (circ. 686,787 daily; 840,000 Sunday), Needelman's report paints a different picture. Both papers, he says, spent "extravagantly" in the expectation that they would either triumph over the competition or be rewarded anyway with a lucrative J.O.A. Monies currently cited by Knight-Ridder as part of the Free Press's $100 million losses were once...
...Knight-Ridder executives hotly dispute Needelman's report, arguing that he contradicts his own conclusion by admitting that neither paper can unilaterally raise prices without risking a huge loss in circulation. Many industry analysts agree. "Needelman completely missed the point about competitive newspaper economics," says Bruce Thorp of Provident National Bank. Without the J.O.A., adds Thorp, "there is little question in my mind that one paper will disappear...
Before then, however, the great Detroit newspaper war will be settled in Washington, where the Attorney General will face the thorny choice of flouting the recommendations of his staff or being blamed for the death of a venerable American institution. Either way, Meese will not question the seriousness of Knight-Ridder's threat. Says Free Press Executive Editor Heath Meriwether: "Anyone who has looked at Alvah Chapman's record knows that he's not the sort who bluffs...